Rotarians from as far away as Echuca and Rochester and those closer to home, including the Rotary Clubs of Bendigo South and Bendigo Sandhurst, recently gathered at the Bendigo Stadium to raise funds for the recent bushfires in Tasmania and other natural disasters up north.
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A whopping $1600 was raised by over 160 Rotarians and friends in attendance from throughout the Goldfields cluster. And the success to their fundraising was simply ordering a meal at the Bendigo Stadium bistro.
Knowing that Rotary is all about doing good work in the community, the Bendigo Stadium kindly donated back 50 per cent of the cost of each meal to the natural disaster fundraising efforts.
President of the Rotary Club of Bendigo South Wendy Learmount said that it was fantastic to see so many people there on the night to support such a wonderful cause.
“Just imagine how many raffles we would need to have, or how many sausages we would need to cook, to raise those sorts of funds,” Wendy said when speaking of Rotary’s traditional fundraising methods.
Guest speaker at the event was Alexandra Gartmann, CEO of the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal, who explained how the FRRR assists rural and regional communities throughout Australia to renew themselves and develop partnerships with the private sector, philanthropy and government grants.
Also presented on the night were donations to several community groups, who were chosen as the 2012 recipients of money raised from the catering provided by Rotary at the annual Swap Meet.
Every year at the Swap Meet, the combined Rotary clubs of Bendigo cook more than 280kg of sausages and 2750 hamburgers amongst other food items, this year allowing the Bendigo Symphony Orchestra, 1st Bendigo Scouts Group and Bendigo Special Development school to receive a donation of $6000 each.
As a member of Rotary, this is just a snapshot of some of the great community opportunities that you can be a part of. If you’d like to know more about joining Rotary, why not get in touch with your local club which include the Rotary Club of Bendigo South, Bendigo, Bendigo Sandhurst, Bendigo Strathdale, Kangaroo Flat and Eaglehawk.
Matthew Scott,
Rotary Club of Bendigo South